Patrick and I met through mutual friends. Our first encounter was freshman year at Furman, on Valentine's Day. I had gone out to dinner with friends and on the way back, we dared Caroline to ask the next guy she saw for their number. Coincidentally, this guy was Patrick. Three years later, on valentine's weekend, Patrick took me out on our first official date. He met me at the door with a beautiful arrangement of flowers and I remember thinking on the date how we just "clicked". From the moment I met Patrick, I knew he was easy to like, and from the first date on, I found how easy he was to love as well. I am thankful for Patrick's presence in my life and cannot wait to be his wife.

Claire and I are not good at keeping secrets, especially Claire. I knew what I was getting for Christmas three months before Christmas. I knew what I was getting for my birthday, weeks before, and Claire figured out approximately the month I would be asking her to marry me. My only regret about the engagement is not going with my original plan to bury the ring in her back yard and make her find it and dig it up with my metal detector. I have always been fascinated with buried treasure, and I knew Claire was a treasure better than any gold I could ever find. In order to surprise Claire, I knew I had to be strategic, she was smart enough to suspect that I would have to propose on a weekend or a special occasion that I was in town since she was living in Hendersonville and I was living in Charleston. I had bought the ring in early May and it was burning a hole in my pocket, so I drove up to Hendersonville on a Thursday and humbly asked Claire to marry me under the white oak tree in her parents' backyard. I anxiously waited for her to get home as she unknowingly iced me by taking an inordinantly long way home. My fears and anxiousness melted away as I saw her pull in the driveway. I professed my love and asked her to be my wife, and she (obviously) said yes!